The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 eBook

where life may be said to reside. In consequence
of this, Jiva, feeling great pain, quickly takes leave
of its mortal casement. Know, O foremost of regenerate
persons, that when the vital parts of the physical
organism become thus afflicted, Jiva slips away from
the body, overwhelmed with great pain. All living
creatures are repeatedly afflicted with birth and
death. It is seen, O chief of Brahmanas, that
the pain which is felt by a person when casting off
his bodies is like what is felt by him when first
entering the womb or when issuing out of it.
His joints become almost dislocated and he derives
much distress from the waters (of the womb).[14] Urged
on by (another) violent wind, the wind that is in
the body becomes excited through cold, and dissolves
away the union of matter (called the body) into its
respective elements numbering five.[15] That wind which
resides in the vital breaths called Prana and Apana
occurring within this compound of the five primal
elements, rushes upwards, from a situation of distress,
leaving the embodied creature. It is even thus
that the wind leaves the body. Then is seen breathlessness.
The man then becomes destitute of heat, of breath,
of beauty, and of consciousness. Deserted by Brahman
(for Jiva is Brahman), the person is said to be dead.
By those ducts through which he perceives all sensuous
objects, the bearer of the body no longer perceives
them. It is the eternal Jiva who creates in the
body in those very duets the life-breaths that are
generated by food. The elements gathered together
become in certain parts firmly united. Know that
those parts are called the vitals of the body.
It is said so in the Sastras. When those vital
parts are pierced, Jiva, rising up, enters the heart
of the living creature and restrains the principle
of animation without any delay. The creature
then, though still endued with the principle of consciousness,
fails to know anything. The vital parts being
all overwhelmed, the knowledge of the living creature
becomes overwhelmed by darkness. Jiva then, who
has been deprived of everything upon which to stay,
is then agitated by the wind. He then, deeply
breathing a long and painful breath, goes out quickly,
causing the inanimate body to tremble. Dissociated
from the body, Jiva, however, is surrounded by his
acts. He becomes equipped on every side with
all his auspicious acts of merit and with all his
sins. Brahmanas endued with knowledge and equipped
with the certain conclusions of the scriptures, know
him, from indications, as to whether he is possessed
of merit or with its reverse. Even as men possessed
of eyes behold the fire-fly appearing and disappearing
amid darkness, men possessed of the eye of knowledge
and crowned with success of penances, behold, with
spiritual vision, Jiva as he leaves the body, as he
is reborn, and as he enters the womb. It is seen
that Jiva has three regions assigned to him eternally.
This world where creatures dwell is called the field